Recently, we took you on a tour of a Verizon Wireless mobile “super switch”. In addition to learning about the facility we picked up some knowledge about how Big Red handles emergencies and other situations, in regards to keeping the network up or restoring it should the worst happen. However, I wanted to know what tools they used to monitor a network to tell if it’s working to begin with. Surely the “can you hear me now” guy isn’t their only method of testing a network.

While inside the switch, I grabbed a the video below to see exactly how things work.

According to Verizon their mobile technicians are tasked with monitoring the networks while out performing their normal tasks, but steps needed to be put in place to ensure things like SMS and data are flowing from the servers properly. What you are watching above is a script that is used to rapidly test SMS and mobile broadband from multiple devices simultaneously.

According to Verizon, these phones are always on, and run that same test every couple of minutes. While it’s a little jarring to see, and I am sure my Matrix nightmares will be back for a day or two, it’s cool to see this kind of thing happening!